Wealthsimple Generation is the top of Wealthsimple’s three client tiers, and Generation vs Premium is a question about what you get, not what you pay: both are free status levels that switch on when your total Wealthsimple assets reach a set amount. Premium begins at $100,000 and Generation at $500,000; everyone below that is on Core, which starts at $1 in assets. This page lays out what each plan changes (Chequing interest, managed-investing fees, the USD account, margin rates, the credit card fee, Wealthsimple Tax and partner rewards), puts dollar figures on each upgrade, and shows when moving money to reach a plan is worth it. YieldMaple checked Wealthsimple’s benefits, Households, credit card, USD savings and fee schedule pages on September 23, 2026, and re-checked the plan comparison page on October 6, 2026.
Wealthsimple Core vs Premium vs Generation at a glance
| Feature | Core | Premium | Generation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total assets needed | $1 in assets | $100,000 | $500,000 |
| Plan fee | None | None | None |
| Chequing interest | 1.25% | 1.75% | 2.25% (better on this row) |
| Direct-deposit interest boost (Chequing and USD savings) | an extra 0.5% with at least $2,000 direct-deposited within 30 days | an extra 0.5% with at least $2,000 direct-deposited within 30 days | Not offered (already the top Chequing rate) |
| Wealthsimple Savings (CAD) | 2.5% (available to every client, no tiers) | Same as Core | Same as Core |
| Managed-investing fee | 0.50% a year | 0.40% a year | from 0.4% down to 0.2% a year (better on this row) |
| Managed tax features | Not included | Tax-loss harvesting | Tax-loss harvesting and asset location (better on this row) |
| USD trading account | $10 a month | Free (better on this row) | Free (better on this row) |
| Conversion fee, US trades from a CAD account | 1.5% | Same as Core | Same as Core |
| CAD margin rate | 4.95% | 4.45% | 3.95% (better on this row) |
| USD margin rate | 7.5% | 7% | 6.5% (better on this row) |
| Portfolio line of credit rate | 4.95% | 4.45% | 3.95% (better on this row) |
| Credit card annual fee | $240 a year ($20/month), waived with $100,000+ in individual assets or $4,000+/month direct deposit | Waived if your individual assets are at the Premium level | Waived if your individual assets are at the Premium level |
| Wealthsimple Tax | Pay for Plus or Pro | Plus included; Pro paid | Plus and Pro included (better on this row) |
| Crypto staking fee (share of rewards) | 30% | 30% | Half the Core and Premium fee (better on this row) |
| Support | 24/7 chat | Adds priority phone | Adds priority phone and priority email |
| Partner perks | None | Milestone rewards as assets grow, Willful and Medcan discounts | Full set of milestone rewards, Willful discount, larger Medcan discounts |
Sources: Wealthsimple plan comparison (wealthsimple.com/en-ca/pricing), re-checked October 6, 2026; credit card, benefits and Households pages, checked September 23, 2026. Margin and line-of-credit rates as of September 18, 2026. All rates are variable.
Read across the table and three patterns stand out. First, the entry points: Core from $1 in assets, Premium from $100,000 and Generation from $500,000, with no plan fee at any level. Second, most of the money is in interest and borrowing rates: Chequing pays 1.25%, 1.75% and 2.25%, while CAD margin costs 4.95%, 4.45% and 3.95%. Third, several things people expect a higher tier to change don’t change at all. Stock and ETF commissions ($0) and the 1.5% currency conversion fee on US trades from a CAD account are identical on every plan, and so is the Wealthsimple Savings rate: 2.5% (available to every client, no tiers).
What is the difference between Wealthsimple Premium and Generation?
Generation adds higher Chequing interest, cheaper margin, free Wealthsimple Tax Pro and a lower crypto staking fee, but its managed fee at the entry point matches Premium.
Here is everything that changes when you cross $500,000, per Wealthsimple’s pricing page:
- Chequing interest rises from 1.75% to 2.25%. On a $20,000 balance that is about $100 a year more. The catch: Premium clients who direct-deposit their pay already earn 2.25%, so for them the step up is zero.
- Borrowing gets half a point cheaper. CAD margin falls from 4.45% to 3.95%, USD margin from 7% to 6.5%, and the portfolio line of credit from 4.45% to 3.95%. Per Wealthsimple’s pricing page, margin is available by application; as of Sept 18, 2026 prime is 4.45% (CAD) — Core pays prime + 0.5%, Premium prime + 0%, Generation prime − 0.5%.
- Managed investing adds asset location, which places each holding in the account type where it is taxed least, on top of the tax-loss harvesting Premium already gets. The fee is 0.4% at $500,000, falling to 0.2% only at $10,000,000 or more. At the entry point that is the same as Premium’s 0.40% a year, and Wealthsimple asks Generation clients to contact its advisor team to confirm their rate.
- Wealthsimple Tax Pro, which adds a one-on-one consultation with a tax expert, is included. Wealthsimple Tax pricing by plan: Basic: pay what you want; Plus: $40 + tax (free for Premium); Pro: $80 + tax (free for Generation). Pro isn’t available to Québec residents or in French, so Québec clients get less from this perk.
- USD savings pays more: 2.5% Core, 3% Premium, 3.5% Generation. Wealthsimple’s USD savings page says the direct-deposit boost applies to USD savings for Core and Premium clients, so a Premium client with direct deposit already earns 3.5%, the Generation rate.
- Crypto staking costs less. Wealthsimple’s staking fee is 30% of your staking rewards on Core and Premium, and 15% on Generation.
- Service and perks: priority email support on top of Premium’s priority phone line, the full set of partner milestone rewards (Premium clients unlock them one by one as their assets grow), larger Medcan health discounts (Ontario only) and a higher cap on mortgage cash back.
What stays the same from Premium to Generation: the free USD trading account, instant-deposit limits (up to $50,000 for Core clients and up to $250,000 for Premium and Generation clients), the credit card fee waiver, commissions and currency conversion fees.
Neither plan comes with a named financial planner on Wealthsimple’s comparison table. Its “financial planning and advice” row lists educational content for all three plans, although the benefits page mentions guidance from an advisor as a Premium benefit. The dedicated advisor service is separate: Wealthsimple’s fee schedule says Wealth Management needs $1,000,000 in managed accounts, and its fee, 0.8% a year, dropping to 0.5% at $10 million or more, replaces the managed-investing fee rather than adding a Generation perk. If personal advice is what you want, read Wealthsimple vs a financial advisor first.
What does Wealthsimple Premium add over Core?
Premium adds a lower managed fee, higher Chequing interest, a free USD account, prime-rate margin, a waived credit card fee (on individual assets) and free Wealthsimple Tax Plus.
The full list of changes at $100,000:
- Managed investing: the fee drops from 0.50% a year to 0.40% a year, and tax-loss harvesting is switched on. Managed vs self-directed at Wealthsimple explains whether you need the managed product at all.
- Chequing interest: 1.25% becomes 1.75%. Both plans can add the direct-deposit boost: an extra 0.5% with at least $2,000 direct-deposited within 30 days.
- USD trading account: Core clients pay $10 a month after a free trial; Premium clients pay nothing. Wealthsimple’s FAQ says a Core client who already pays simply stops being charged on reaching Premium. The Wealthsimple USD account guide shows when the account saves money.
- Margin and line of credit: CAD margin falls from 4.95% to 4.45%, USD margin from 7.5% to 7%, and the portfolio line of credit from 4.95% to 4.45%.
- Credit card: the Wealthsimple credit card fee is $240 a year ($20/month), waived with $100,000+ in individual assets or $4,000+/month direct deposit. The same individual-assets level also gets you the metal card. The full card terms are in the Wealthsimple credit card review.
- Wealthsimple Tax Plus, with priority support and audit protection, is included.
- Instant deposits rise: up to $50,000 for Core clients and up to $250,000 for Premium and Generation clients, applied across managed, self-directed and crypto accounts.
- Support and perks: priority phone service, a discount on an online will from Willful, Medcan discounts (Ontario only), a higher cap on mortgage cash back than Core, and partner milestone rewards, from brands such as Uber One, Strava and Headspace, that unlock at higher asset milestones above the Premium entry point.
What Premium does not change
The biggest myth about Premium is that it lowers currency conversion fees. It doesn’t. Wealthsimple’s plan comparison lists the same 1.5% fee on US trades from a CAD account for all three plans, and USD-account conversions cost 1.5% under $10,000; 1.0% from $10,000; 0.5% from $25,000; 0% from $100,000 on every plan, tiered by the size of each conversion rather than by your status.
Also unchanged: commissions ($0), the options contract fee (US$0 per contract), the Savings rate and account protection. For investment accounts: securities eligible for CIPF coverage up to $1M per defined account. Chequing balances are held in trust at CDIC member institutions, with coverage of up to $100,000 per beneficiary, per CDIC member institution; in total it’s up to $1 million, because funds are spread across up to 10 CDIC member institutions (Wealthsimple itself is not a CDIC member). The Premium summary on Wealthsimple’s pricing page mentions “reduced options trading and crypto fees”. For options, the detailed fee table on the same page shows the same contract fee on all three plans, so this guide doesn’t count it as a Premium perk. For crypto, the pricing table and Wealthsimple’s legal crypto fee schedule (updated September 24, 2026) both list one baseline trading fee for every plan; the crypto fee that changes with your plan is staking, and only on Generation.
How do Wealthsimple’s tiers work?
Wealthsimple places you on Core, Premium or Generation automatically, based on the higher of your net deposits or your total portfolio value across almost every Wealthsimple account.
The rules, from the FAQ on Wealthsimple’s pricing page:
- What counts: TFSAs, RRSPs, RESPs, group RRSPs, LIRAs and non-registered accounts, whether managed or self-directed, plus crypto, Savings and Chequing.
- Net deposits or value, whichever is higher. A strong market can lift you into Premium without a new deposit, and a market drop alone won’t push you out while your net deposits are still above the line.
- Moving down takes both. Your status changes only if both your net deposits and your total assets fall and stay below $100,000 (or $500,000). If you withdraw and lose Premium, Wealthsimple says it may claw back the unused value of partner rewards you claimed.
- Households combine assets. Wealthsimple clients who share a residential address can form a Household, and Wealthsimple’s Households page says their combined assets count toward a client plan. Each person still controls which accounts they share. The “wealth rank” in the Households net-worth view is a display in the app, not a plan.
- There is no separate Premium account. Premium and Generation are a status applied to the accounts you already have, not a product you open.
One thing Households does not do is waive the credit card fee. Wealthsimple’s pricing and credit card pages tie the waiver and the metal card to individual assets, so a couple at $100,000 combined may still pay the card fee unless one of them qualifies alone or uses the direct-deposit route.
How do you become a Wealthsimple Generation client?
Reach $500,000 on your own or as a Household and the upgrade is automatic. There’s nothing to apply for. If you use managed investing, contact Wealthsimple’s advisor team afterwards, because its pricing page says Generation fees run from 0.4% down to 0.2% a year, depending on assets.
What rewards do Wealthsimple Premium and Generation clients get?
Generation clients get 3 partner rewards and Premium clients get up to 3 partner rewards, depending on assets; both also get Willful and Ontario-only Medcan discounts.
The rewards unlock as your assets grow: Wealthsimple gives one partner reward of your choice at $200,000 in assets, then another at every $100,000 milestone after that. Per Wealthsimple’s pricing page, checked October 6, 2026, the partner perks by tier are:
- Partner milestone rewards from partners such as Uber, Strava or Headspace: Core gets none, Premium gets up to 3 partner rewards, depending on assets, and Generation gets 3 partner rewards. Because the first reward unlocks above the Premium entry point, a client at exactly $100,000 has none yet.
- Online will: Premium and Generation clients get 20% off an online will from Willful.
- Medcan health care (Ontario only): the Year-Round Care plan discount is 30% off on Premium and 40% off on Generation (Ontario only; not offered on Core).
The pricing page says the milestone rewards come on top of the other partner perks. None of these rewards has a fixed dollar value on Wealthsimple’s pricing page, so the worked examples below leave them out. As the tiers section above notes, Wealthsimple says it may claw back the unused value of rewards you claimed if you withdraw money and lose Premium.
Two worked examples: what each upgrade is worth in dollars
Perks are easy to list and hard to value. These examples use Wealthsimple’s published rates from September 2026 and count only perks with a dollar price.
Example 1: Core to Premium. An investor holds $100,000 in a managed portfolio and $10,000 in Chequing with no direct deposit, keeps a USD trading account, has the Wealthsimple credit card and files with Wealthsimple Tax Plus. Compared with Core pricing, Premium is worth:
- Managed fee: $100 a year
- USD trading account: $120 a year
- Credit card fee waived: $240 a year, or nothing if you already qualify for the card’s direct-deposit waiver on Core
- Wealthsimple Tax Plus included: $40
- Extra Chequing interest: $50 a year. The gap is the same if you use the direct-deposit boost on both plans, and it disappears if you keep the cash in Savings instead
Total: about $550 a year. Drop any product you wouldn’t use and the figure shrinks fast. A self-directed ETF investor with no USD account and no credit card gets little more than the Tax Plus saving and any extra Chequing interest.
Example 2: Premium to Generation. An investor holds $500,000 in a managed portfolio, keeps $20,000 in Chequing, carries a $50,000 balance on the portfolio line of credit all year (secured by the non-registered and TFSA part of the portfolio) and would buy Wealthsimple Tax Pro. Compared with Premium, Generation is worth:
- Managed fee: Generation’s published fee is 0.4% at $500,000, falling to 0.2% only at $10,000,000 or more, the same as Premium at this size, so the fee is about $2,000 a year either way and there is no saving (the advisor team confirms the exact Generation rate)
- Line-of-credit interest: $2,225 on Premium against $1,975 on Generation, a saving of $250 a year
- Extra Chequing interest: $100 a year, or nothing if you already direct-deposit on Premium
- Wealthsimple Tax Pro included: $80
Total: about $430 a year, which is under 0.1% of the portfolio. Without the borrowing and with direct deposit, the cash value falls to about $80, plus the perks without a fixed price: asset location, priority email, the lower staking fee and larger Medcan discounts (Ontario only).
The lesson from both examples: Premium pays when you use Wealthsimple’s managed portfolios, USD account or credit card, and Generation pays mainly when you borrow against your portfolio.
Which Wealthsimple plan pays the most interest on cash?
For Canadian-dollar cash, Wealthsimple Savings pays the most on every plan, at 2.5% (available to every client, no tiers), beating even Generation’s 2.25% Chequing rate.
This is why “Wealthsimple interest rate tiers” matter less than they look. On $20,000 kept for a year, before tax:
- Wealthsimple Savings, any plan: $500
- Chequing on Generation: $450
- Chequing on Premium: $350, or $450 with direct deposit
- Chequing on Core: $250, or $350 with direct deposit
The plan matters for money you keep in Chequing for spending. For everything else, Savings wins on every plan. USD savings is the cash product whose base rate climbs with each plan: 2.5% Core, 3% Premium, 3.5% Generation. Wealthsimple’s USD savings page adds that the direct-deposit boost for Core and Premium clients covers “all your chequing and savings accounts”, including USD savings, so if you direct-deposit, the rate shown in the app may be higher than the base rates above. Every rate, including the TFSA savings option, is on the Wealthsimple interest rates page, and the Wealthsimple Savings account guide covers how Savings is protected.
Is it worth moving money to reach Premium or Generation?
Only if Wealthsimple is where you would invest anyway: a transfer of $25,000 or more can earn 1% of the net amount transferred, but perks alone rarely justify moving money.
Example 3: reaching Premium by transfer. Someone with $50,000 at Wealthsimple and a $50,000 RRSP at a bank moves the RRSP over. Together that reaches $100,000, which unlocks the Premium perks from Example 1. The transfer itself can earn a match of $500, paid over 24 months and capped at $20,000, as long as you register for the offer first and move at least $25,000. Wealthsimple also covers the bank’s transfer-out fee: reimbursed on transfers of $25,000 or more, up to $150 per account, and the account must stay funded for 90 days. How to transfer to Wealthsimple walks through the steps and timelines.
Before you move money to hit a threshold, check these five things:
- Count only perks you will use. Example 1 shows the value shrinking to little more than the Tax Plus saving for a self-directed investor with no USD account or credit card.
- Register for the transfer match before starting the transfer. The match needs at least $25,000 moved within the offer window.
- Ask how the transfer will happen. A transfer in kind moves your holdings as they are; a transfer in cash sells them first, which can trigger a capital gain in a non-registered account.
- Remember the downgrade rule. Moving the money back out later can drop you a plan if both your net deposits and your assets fall below the line.
- Think about concentration. At Generation-level balances, check how your accounts map to CIPF’s account categories, because coverage works per account category: securities eligible for CIPF coverage up to $1M per defined account.
Is Wealthsimple Trade Plus a plan, and is it free?
Trade Plus is not a Wealthsimple plan: it is the name of Wealthsimple’s active-trading platform, which Wealthsimple describes as commission-free, and its pricing page lists no Trade Plus fee.
Wealthsimple’s active-trading page describes Trade Plus as a single screen for charting, placing orders directly from the chart and managing positions, with candlestick views and technical indicators. YieldMaple found no Trade Plus price on the plan comparison page on October 6, 2026, and stock and ETF commissions are $0 on every plan. If you have seen Trade Plus described elsewhere as a monthly subscription, check the date of that post: the paid add-on on today’s pricing page is the USD trading account, at $10 a month on Core and free on Premium and Generation.
Wealthsimple also has a separate “active trader” status that is earned by the number of trades you place each month, not by assets. Its active-trading page lists priority support, phone-in trades and early access to new tools among the benefits, and describes the status as “earned, not bought”.
Who should (and shouldn’t) care about Premium or Generation?
Premium matters to anyone who already qualifies or uses managed investing, a USD account or the credit card; Generation matters mostly to people who borrow against their portfolio.
Premium is worth using if:
- You already have $100,000 or more at Wealthsimple, alone or as a Household. It costs nothing, so there’s no decision to make.
- You use managed investing, since the fee drops to 0.40% a year and tax-loss harvesting switches on.
- You would otherwise pay for the USD trading account, the credit card fee or Wealthsimple Tax Plus.
Generation matters if:
- You borrow against your portfolio, where rates drop to 3.95% in CAD.
- You want Wealthsimple Tax Pro and live outside Québec, or you stake crypto.
- You keep a large USD cash balance and don’t use the direct-deposit boost, since USD savings pays 2.5% Core, 3% Premium, 3.5% Generation (Premium clients with the boost already reach the Generation USD rate).
Don’t chase either plan if:
- Your goal is lower currency fees. Plans don’t change them. Norbert’s Gambit at Wealthsimple, or a USD account used for large conversions, does more.
- Your goal is a cheaper robo-advisor. Questwealth charges 0.25% a year on balances of $250 to $99,999, and 0.20% from $100,000, both below Wealthsimple’s Premium fee of 0.40% a year. Compare them in the best robo-advisors in Canada.
- Your goal is cheap margin. Interactive Brokers posts 3.606% on the first $130,000 borrowed in CAD as of October 8, 2026 (IBKR's benchmark rate + 1.5%), below even Generation’s CAD rate. See Wealthsimple vs Interactive Brokers.
- Your goal is the best rate on Canadian-dollar cash. Savings pays the same 2.5% (available to every client, no tiers) on Core as on Generation.
The verdict: let Premium and Generation come to you. If your balance already qualifies, use every perk that fits how you invest. If it doesn’t, open the account for the core product, not the plan, and move money only when a transfer makes sense on its own. This page is general education, not financial advice. For the rest of the platform, see our complete Wealthsimple guide.